Closing RHS forums

We
are currently redesigning the RHS website, with many exciting new functions and
developments. The new site will offer many more opportunities for you to
be involved in the community of RHS users. The new site will be launched
in mid-March and we would encourage you to join our new website as a ‘registered
user’, where you will be able to: add comments to online articles, add comments
to blogs and bookmark webpages to add to your own personal area (visible when
you log in). If you register and are an RHS member you will also be able to
access exclusive articles, videos and podcasts.

This
does mean that we will be closing down the MyGarden forums. As other forms of
social media become more popular, numbers have been declining and it is no
longer viable for us to run a separate forum board.

We
have a very active Facebook
group,with over 20,000 likes, and very active discussions. You could post your
plant identification questions on this page – our RHS advisors do regularly pop
onto these pages.

If
you would like any of the posts you have made on MyGarden, please take this
chance to copy and paste any of your posts into your own records. We will be
closing the forums and deleting all posts and threads after 18 March.

Once
again, thank you for your support over the years, and we hope to see all of you
on the new website!

Ok, well here goes....Personally I think this is a very poor decision. This forum has always had a bit of a "clunky" and old-fashioned feel and may have contributed to the decline in numbers, although I would be interested to know these numbers.

The advantage of this forum is for people of all ages and abilities to "chat" to their peers. Being able to add comments to blogs and articles written by, I assume, highly qualified people on the "new" site is no replacement for being able to chat and get advice without fear of ridicule. There are many very helpful people on this forum.

I for one, really dislike Facebook and very seldom even look at it. I think you will be losing people (and possibly prospective new RHS members) to other forums such as Gardeners World and others.

I too will be sorry to see the forums go. As Faraway says, it is an ideal opportunity to chat to other like-minded gardeners. On Facebook you have to go looking for people whereas on here we all come to the same place. On Facebook, being active is not the same as being able to interact.

How about a 'members only' forum of some description which would be easier to monitor?

I too shall be sorry to say goodbye to this forum, with its friendly and knowledgeable atmosphere. I'll miss Silver Surfer's encyclopaedic knowledge; Pesty's authoritative posts on anything chemical; Courier Dude's robust directness; all the idle chatters; and everyone else, beginners and experts alike. This is the only forum I've been involved in, and like Roger I don't think facebook offers the same experience. Are there other forums people would recommend?

I wonder if the difficulty people had in adding images frightened many away?

There are far easier, user friendly sites on www.

I do not/will not be using Face book.

As for other forums ... may I recommend .....

1. "The University of British Columbia Garden Forums" for those that want a serious site with very knowledgeable pros especialy on the Plant id section.( on there I feel like a complete novice, compared to the real experts!)

I am very sorry to see this thread go. Is there really no way that we could continue to chat on the new and improved RHS site. I've just been to the RHS Facebook site and found it to be very confusing. I don't want to lose touch with the friends that I've made but fear that I will.
Please RHS don't abandon us.

Oh dear! What a real shame. The BBC announced this week that 'The Archers' message board is to close too. I shall miss both these forums very much. Face book & Twitter are most definitely not a substitute I would be interested in. This was the one place to 'talk' about all things gardening with other like-minded souls. There has always been something interesting going on even if I wasn't contributing directly. It seems very short-sighted of the RHS. What is the point of a national horticultural society if it does not support gardeners is such a useful way?

I suspect RHS resources can be put to better use and for a wider audience than running an under used forum facility, sad though it will be when they close. I'm looking forward to giving the new site atry.

When the BBC closed its gardening boards, many people migrated to the GW boards. There are experienced gardeners as well as beginners swapping news and advice on a wide variety of topics. You could give them a try if, like me, Facebook is not for you. http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/

Most posters are in Britain but there are a few from France, Belgium and Holland too and the hosts are keen and friendly.

Thank you Silver Surfer & Obelix. Just had a quick look at the gardener's world & gardener's corner forums. On the latter I got a weather forecast for Branklyn gardens - just down the road from here! So yes, very promising. Best K

I only recently discovered these forums - not the easiest site to use so a redesign is probably overdue, but I really like that there are so many forums on lots of different topics, so will be sorry to see them go.

Having been here for a long time, I'm also sorry to see the forum going. I've made some good friends here, but there are other forums out there and plenty for all tastes, so I hope we can meet up elsewhere on the web.

There is a gardening thread running on a forum called Not the Talk (http://notthetalk.com/discussion/top/18), where people discuss gardening and ask and answer questions. It is a text-only forum with no pictures, avatars or emoticons, which means people write in sentences - and very articulate they are, too. The rest of the forum takes in every aspect of life you can think of and whilst parts of it are not for the faint-hearted (they can get a bit sweary, but it's mainly light-hearted), the Environment section is very good.